Sunday, November 2, 2008

Our Little Pumpkin is Turning 1!

Eliana Grace had her first birthday party yesterday. Wow! I still can't believe it. However a huge milestone can't come and go without any mishaps. This will be our conversation when she is older.

Eliana: Mommy, why isn't there any video of everyone singing Happy Birthday or even me eating my cake?Mommy: Well, we didn't check to see if the tape in the video camera had any space left on it.Eliana: Mommy, why are all the pictures really grainy?Mommy: Well, we didn't charge the re-chargeable batteries and tried to put regular batteries in the camera, but apparently the camera didn't like that, so we had to use our other camera which takes horrible pictures in not-lit-so-well situations.Eliana: Mommy, why didn't you get pictures of me opening presents?Mommy: Because I was helping you and daddy was trying to video tape after he put in a new tape.Eliana: Oh.

Yep, it is true. The good thing is she turns one tomorrow, so we will do all of those things all over again. I am recharging the batteries as we speak. Other than that, it was a great day. I kept Eliana out all day Thursday as we shopped for everything. Way to be on top of things, don't you think? And then I baked 50 cakes on Friday and started decorating. Yep, 50 cakes! I had this great idea from a magazine. Let's just say at midnight, when I started to ice them, and I realized I had know idea how theirs could turn out cute and mine could turn out like a blob of orange icing, I had to improvise. I still think they turned out great and everyone seemed to like them.

The day started great. Jason and I ran around finishing things up. Eliana didn't take her nap. Talked for almost 2 straight hours in her crib and fell asleep about 15 minutes before I needed to get her up and put her in her costume. Luckily she is a huge people person and I knew she wouldn't fuss or get too tired out of the excitement of everyone being there. All the little kids came dressed up for the party. It was great. We had a slide show of the past year, with special music that we had selected and I started to cry a couple of times.

Here are a few pics of her special day.

This was her cake. Since her party was a pumpkin patch theme, I made little pumpkins.

This was her party. I am so thankful we had a huge empty basement to fit tables and chairs.

I made little word finds for everyone with words from her first year.

Eliana dressed up as a ladybug for the party. I love this costume! And, she didn't seem to mind it.

She stared at her cake awhile and then lightly touched the icing. It wasn't until I cut into it did she take big chunks and stuff them in her mouth.

I love this picture. She is diving into cake at her first birthday party and in the background, the slide show has a picture of her on her first few days of life.

Her cake was pumpkin with chocolate chips. This is her plate halfway through. She ate almost the whole thing!